Spark Leader? was Re: Can I touch my Tesla ?

["Barton B. Anderson" <tesla123-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Hi Malcolm, All, 

In lightning storms (you aught to be plenty familiar with) the charged cloud
builds and draws leaders from objects (trees, poles, golf clubs, etc.). Have
you ever seen a spark leader coming from objects to a TC? It would be
interesting to see a photo of a TC spark leader. Anyone ever captured one on
film? I would expect these to exist even for our coils. 

Bart 

Tesla list wrote: 
>
> Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <M.J.Watts-at-massey.ac.nz> 
>
> Hi Chris, 
>
> On 25 Jul 00, at 12:01, Tesla list wrote: 
>
> > Original poster: "Christopher Boden" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com> 
> > 
> > Watch closely (preferably in total darkness) and you will see 
> > streamers eminateing FROM the tips of the tree if it's close 
> > enough. 
> > 
> > Could someone explain this phenomena? It happens with held objects as well.
>
>
> The obvious question is why shouldn't it happen? There is a 
> strong electric field in the vicinity which induces opposite 
> charge on surrounding objects and the concentration of charge 
> on those objects will be at the most pointed parts (for want 
> of better wording). This is observed routinely in 
> thunderstorms. Obviously the induction is AC in the case of a 
> Tesla Coil but the situation is otherwise similar. I see this 
> all the time when running coils. As a streamer from the coil 
> approaches one of these points the emission from the point 
> will increase which wil encourage the TC streamer to connect 
> with the object. 
>
> Regards, 
> Malcolm 
> <snip>